BY: Ahmad Abu el-Hamd
The finance ministry of Egypt said that the budget deficit decreased by 7% on an annual basis from July 2016 to February 2017, according to a recent report.
The decrease in the country’s deficit resulted from higher revenues by 22.6% against expenses that grew by 14.2%.
Egypt’s deficit during the eight months registered EGP 226.6 billion which accounted for 7% of the gross domestic product (GDP) during fiscal year 2016/2017, compared with EGP 222.9 billion or 8.2% of GDP in the same period of the prior fiscal year.
During the eight months of fiscal year 2016/2017, revenues increased to EGP 310.5 billion or 9.6% of GDP from EGP 253.2 billion or 9.3% of GDP in the same period of FY2015/16, the report said.
The expenses grew to EGP 532.5 billion or 16.4% of GDP in FY2016/17 from EGP 466.2 billion or 17.2% of GDP in FY2015/16.
